


liebesblüte

by managician



Category: Witch's Heart (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Birthday Presents, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Language of Flowers, One Shot, i want them to kiss, im celebrating both wil and my friend's bday with this ok listen, posting bc we always need more fics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:48:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21547858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/managician/pseuds/managician
Summary: “Ughh, are flowers too boring of a gift? Too overrated?” Claire whines, glancing away as a bright red layer of embarrassment covers her cheeks. “They are, right? He works with flowers to begin with, what am I thinking, he’s just gonna hate a present like that—”“You know this is Wilardo, right? You could give him a fish and he’d probably be alright with it.”--Claire tries to come up with a good present for Wilardo's birthday. Keyword being try. It still goes better than expected.
Relationships: Wilardo Adler/Claire Elford
Comments: 4
Kudos: 37





	liebesblüte

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kagebro](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kagebro/gifts).



The school library looks admittedly empty when Zizel walks in. 

She supposes it’s understandable, as it is near closing time, but she’s never been here at this hour before. Having grown so used to the sea of students doing homework and rushing last minute group assignments, the collection of completely unoccupied seats and desks is somewhat jarring, to put it lightly. 

Well, not _completely_ , just almost. There’s a single person sitting in front of one of the many tables, still engrossed with what should be school tasks; this presence isn’t surprising to Zizel, though. She came here searching for said person, who just so happens to be her best friend. 

Sure enough, Claire’s head is submerged in one of the many books sprawled throughout her desk; scrunched brows and her right eye twitching every few seconds give away that she’s not having much success with understanding the contents in it.

With mild curiosity now plaguing her, Zizel sets her bag down and stealthily slides next to the exhausted girl, trying to catch a good view of the book cover. It has a splash of what appear to be coloured flowers — she isn’t that well-versed on the topic, but she’s pretty sure the one in the left corner might be a rose — and a cute, cursive title that she doesn’t get time to read, because Claire lets out a frustrated whine and abruptly slaps the hardcover against her desk, pages fluttering down until it closes entirely.

“Ahh, why didn’t I ask Ashe for help?” she scratches her neck, and Zizel thinks that she probably hasn’t noticed the presence of another being in the room. “Stupid, stupid… What am I gonna do now…”

“May I ask what do you need help with?” 

Claire squirms on her seat, forcing Zizel to hold back a giggle upon seeing her so startled. She’d never gotten used to her sneaky habits. 

“Zizel, I told you to please stop doing that months ago,” she sighs, dropping her head in a rather defeated manner. 

“It’s not my fault you always fall for it,” Zizel does laugh this time, grinning softly. “But really, what are you doing in the school library? They’re about to close up for the day.”

“W-Wait, what?” Claire frets and begins a frantic search for her phone, nearly knocking to the floor several books in the process until she finds the device stuck beneath a heavy looking volume. “Oh, it’s almost 9pm,” she whispers, realisation dawning on her face. 

“Have you been here all day?” her companion asks, faint concern lacing her voice. Zizel knows firsthand how easily Claire spaces out, but for her to lose track of time entirely… What kind of work had she been doing? “You look really tired. Procrastinated on some school project again?”

“No, no, nothing like that,” Claire firmly reassures. “I just needed to research some stuff for, uhh, a thing, but I guess I got too carried away…”

“A thing, hmm,” Zizel quietly hums, glancing over the books that Claire had borrowed for her so called ‘research’, entirely unsurprised when all of them turn out to be related to botany. “If you really wanted to know more about flower symbolism, you could’ve asked Wilardo… Ah, but that’d rather defeat the purpose of this, am I right?” She laughs again.

“Ughh, are flowers too boring of a gift? Too overrated?” Claire whines, glancing away as a bright red layer of embarrassment covers her cheeks. “They are, right? He works with flowers to begin with, what am I thinking, he’s just gonna hate a present like that—”

“Claire, don’t panic,” Zizel wisely instructs, and though her tone is a bit harsh, the grin hasn’t left her lips; she’s the calm one of their odd duo, after all, and someone has to keep check on Claire. “You know this is Wilardo, right? You could give him a fish and he’d probably be alright with it.”

Especially if she happened to be the one giving him the gift, but Zizel’s not going to tell her that. The spell of Claire’s ridiculous obliviousness is too strong and too amusing for the purebred to break.

"Right, right, I know that," Claire waves her hand dismissively in the air. "He'd take it, but I need him to actually like it! What's the point of a present otherwise?" 

"I don't know… The fact that you're thinking of him and putting so much care into this is already pretty sweet on its own, don't you think?"

"Zizel, seriously," Claire sighs and blushes again, mumbling some vague threats. "We're all gonna get him something that we put some thought into. It's not special just because I'm the one doing it."

"Is it not now… I wonder..."

Their discussion keeps going back and forth while Claire gathers all the books in order to return them to their respective spots. A starry sky greets the pair when they finally excuse themselves from the library and walk outside — not without the ever talkative and kind librarian Dorothy having held an amicable chat on Claire's selected study topic for the day. 

The aforementioned girl stares at the road's pavement as if it's the most interesting thing in the world, trying to not show how insecure she feels. The walk to their dorms has never been so long; a witch or mage must've stretched the length of the campus without her noticing. 

_What a bust_ , poor Claire can't help but think. She let the entire evening slip by, even though her original plan was to gather intel and then head out to buy the right flowers that she'd craft the perfect bouquet with, and didn't even manage to pick which species she wanted to begin with.

She had no time to improvise another present, either, for there were only a few hours left until midnight and she'd promised herself she'd wish the boy happy birthday as soon as she physically could.

At least, she was grateful that Zizel had come by to pick her up—

...Wait.

"How did you even know I was in the library?" Claire narrows her eyes suspiciously, lips twisting into a tiny pout. "You always go back to your dorm room right away after you finish your shift..."

Zizel has never been the worrywart type; if Claire wasn't in her bedroom, she wouldn't think much of it. Much less go out of her way to actually look for her. So there had to be another reason...

"I was merely curious in regards to your whereabouts," she answers with such a devious smile, Claire can tell she's purposefully lying. "Someone has to look out for the dorm princess."

"So you just searched all over the school until you found me here?" she sighs, not buying the explanation in the slightest.

"It's rather bold of you to assume that I'd go through so much effort."

"Then what? Did your… demon instincts or whatever tell you I was here?"

"Perhaps," Zizel lets out another giggle. "Well, let us say someone was worried about you, and from what they told me, I assumed you'd be here."

Claire pauses and puts a hand to her chin. Zizel watches her muse in silence, wondering if she'd actually put two and two together…

"I don't get it."

Yeah, of course not.

"You're free to give it some more thought by yourself," Zizel announces, not making herself any more clear. "Personally, I'll be going back to my room for the night, if you'll excuse me…"

Claire blinks, and lets out a small gasp when she realises that indeed, they've already walked all the way from the campus library to the dorm building, and are currently standing in front of Zizel's doorstep, with her holding onto the doorknob.

"O-Oh, yeah, of course," she distractedly mutters. "Goodnight..."

"Are you still spacing out?" Zizel asks, to which Claire shyly nods. "...Hm. Well, let's see…" The demon's eyes glint again. "Could you stay here for a second?" 

"Uh… Sure?" Claire grins nervously. "But what for?"

"I just remembered there's something I wanted you to have. I forgot to carry it to the library, my bad. It’ll be just one moment,”

And with that, Zizel slides into her room and Claire’s left alone in the hallway, dumbfoundedly staring at the empty space where her friend stood seconds ago. If she were to be a cartoon character, there’d be little question marks flying all over her head. 

She paces around aimlessly, glancing from one side of the corridor to another several times, deciding that there isn't much she can do besides waiting. Going back to her room right away and ignoring Zizel's request so she can eat dirt and swallow in her self pity isn't a particularly great plan. She'll put it on hold for now. 

...She can say that, but she still feels bad, gosh. Leave it to her to push important things aside up until the last minute… As facts stand, Wilardo's birthday is a couple of hours away, all the souvenir stores have long since closed, and Claire Elford's hands still have no gift for him to hold. If only she wasn't so tired and disappointed, she'd feel like crying.

While Zizel wasn't wrong when she'd claimed Wilardo would accept any of her extravagances for presents — the boy's incredibly nonchalant attitude throws all of them in for a loop sometimes, though they've been friends throughout the years of high school — that doesn't mean that Claire can just give _anything_ to him. She wants it to be something special! 

"...Huh?"

_Think, Claire, think,_ she told herself. Something that could convey her feelings for him properly… A handmade detail was bound to be the key to success, but now all her chances are already out of the window. Maybe that's not so bad, considering that all her attempts at confessing her subdued crush have been futile so far.

"Claire?" 

The neat (and also handmade!) couple of chocolates that she'd given him on Valentine's Day clearly didn't achieve the desired effect, so she'd hoped that she could pull through on his birthday, and _yet_ —

A cool hand comes to rest on her shoulder, and Claire gets startled for the second time that day, nearly screeching and astral projecting her soul out of her body when she finds herself face to face with the man that'd been occupying her last set of thoughts.

"...That's a weird way of saying hi," Wilardo blinks. Overwhelmingly enthusiastic, as always.

"H-Hi! Yes, hi, hello," Claire straightens herself up, trying to not look as if she'd been caught in the middle of a robbery act. "You're still up… Not that I'm surprised, haha…"

"Every group needs a chronic insomniac guy," he sighs, scratching his neck. "It's not really high school otherwise."

"Still, your bags are worrying," Claire pouts, taking a step closer to him and poking his cheek. "You wouldn't want to be tired on your birthday, right? Ashe will kill you if you faceplant into your cake because you were feeling sleepy."

"I think he'll kill me in many other scenarios," Wilardo says, making Claire laugh a bit. "It's not a threat at this point. If anything, you're the one who should be sleeping…" he frowns. "It's getting close to midnight. You don't usually stay up this late."

"I had work to do, but I kinda lost track of time."

Wilardo arches an eyebrow. "That does not explain why are you standing in the middle of—"

Conveniently, Zizel snaps her door open that exact second, this time startling them both and shutting Wilardo's question before he can finish it. She gives the pair an approving glare, and Claire notices several moments too late that she's hiding something behind her back, if the fold of her arms is anything to go by.

"Ah, hello, Wilardo," she giggles. "I hadn't caught sight of you all day… But I can see you're doing alright."

"...Yeah, same for you," he nods.

"By the way, thanks for waiting, Claire," Zizel proceeds. "Here, I got what you wanted."

_...Huh?_

Without further delay, Zizel takes Claire's wrist, stretches her palm open and plants a rose on it.

"I was surprised when you told me you'd like to have a rose," Zizel admits, and Claire curses her top notch acting skills under her breath, because she's finally realised exactly what Zizel is trying to do. "I guess I understand now, though. Proof of true love, hm," she glances at Wilardo knowingly.

The pair's so dumbfounded that neither of them have the time to react with a proper comeback.

"Have a good night," she winks, retreating back into her dorm.

Silence reigns. Claire suddenly finds that the red floor files are one of the most interesting sights she's ever laid eyes on, she can't take her gaze away from them. She'd be fine staring at them for the next few hours.

_That woman knew exactly what she was doing. Ugh, I can't believe her! It's so like her to take advantage of the situation like that…_

"...That rose's really pretty," Wilardo notes, fingers gently ghosting over its petals. "If Zizel was the one to grow it, she must love gardening more than I thought."

"You're right," Claire breathes out. "It is. Pretty. Very," _His fingers are so close to mine, oh god—_ "Would you like to have it?"

"Didn't Zizel say you need it for something?"

It's now or never. She has to make the best use of the stage Zizel set up for her. (Even if she's going to berate her for the amounts of secondhand embarrassment later).

"I… Yeah, actually," Claire takes a deep breath. "I wanted to give it to you. For your birthday, you know."

"...Oh."

"I wanted to make a bouquet, but I'm— really not that smart, so I went to the library to pick up some knowledge even though Ashe offered to help, but then I got so caught up on my research that I wasted the whole day and now it's your birthday and I don't have it," she rambles out, as fast as she can. "I'm sorry…"

"...There's nothing you've got to apologize for," Wilardo finally shakes his head. 

"But I really wanted to do something for you!"

"Anything you give me is okay," he says softly. "It'd be a special present just because it's yours, Claire. I appreciate it. Still… A rose, of all things…"

Claire tilts her head to the side, feeling her face grow hot. Even people who aren't knowledgeable on flower symbolism and language know that deep red stands for passionate love. It's just especially embarrassing because Wilardo caught up on it right away.

"I really like you," she whispers. As things are, it'll be hard for her to make her predicament any worse — might as well accept it and state the truth outright. "Sorry..."

"No, that's good," Wilardo cuts her, perhaps a bit too quickly for someone who's supposed to always keep his composure. 

"I hope this won't change anything between us, I— I'm sorry for dumping this on you right on your birthday too—"

"I said it's alright," Wilardo insists again, never raising his voice. 

He picks up the rose from Claire's hand, and then, slowly, he gently curls his fingers around hers, keeping his hold firm. 

"W-Wha?" 

"...It's okay, really. I like you too, Claire," he gives her one of his rare, genuine smiles and suddenly Claire's knees might as well be made out of jelly instead of skin and bones. Who let this bastard be so pretty? So smooth?

"I'm going to k word you."

Wilardo is unfortunately not acquainted with Twitter terms. He plays into her game nevertheless, cocking his head to one side, playful. "And which one's that? Kill?... Or kiss?"

Claire truly wishes she had the emotional strength to kill someone, but when Wilardo pins her to the nearest wall and leans down to lock their lips together, she finds that she can't really be mad, after all. 

"Happy birthday," is the first thing that slips from her when he pulls back, both having grown breathless.

"It's not my birthday yet," Wilardo clicks his tongue.

"...Well, I guess I'll have to wait with you until the clock hits midnight, then," she grins. "I bet you want another birthday kiss."

"...That'd be great."

_Yeah, I really can't be mad,_ she thinks to herself again, still on cloud nine as Wilardo leads her to his room.

( That doesn't mean that she won't kill Zizel and Wilardo when she learns that they were working together to make this happen, anyway.

But Ashe's cooperation in a two-man murder is not a concern for this story. )

**Author's Note:**

> SO i actually meant to write this back for wil's birthday but im a clown and i didnt get it on time. then today it was axel's birthday and i was like _oh heck i could revisit this_ and i did and pulled almost 3k words out of nowhere bc i love him and he deserves the world. am i talking about wil or about my bff? yes. i couldve used a latin word for the title but i went for german this time to be original
> 
> axel i know you literally already read this but HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! u rock  
> Also I'm sorry Wilardo barely actually shows up we hfdjfdm ANYWAYS JUST TAKE MY WILCLAIRE I LOVE THEM  
> find me on tumblr / twitter @managician
> 
> thank you for reading!!


End file.
